


Perfect Storm

by endlessreinhart, suzieq432



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Cannon Divergence, Coworkers - Freeform, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Grocery Store, I don’t really like you to lovers, Jughead Jones is NOT in love with Betty Cooper, Reggie is a shitty boyfriend, Trainee Betty, Trainer Jughead, Wait maybe he is, We had an idea and ran with it, supermarket au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2021-01-06 02:15:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21218891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/endlessreinhart/pseuds/endlessreinhart, https://archiveofourown.org/users/suzieq432/pseuds/suzieq432
Summary: Things in Jughead Jones life never went the way they were supposed to. His mother wasn’t supposed to run out on him, his father wasn’t supposed to be useless, and he wasn’t supposed to be working a minimum wage job to support himself at seventeen. He wasn’t supposed to have to train Betty Cooper.And he definitely wasn’t supposed to fall in love with her.OrThe supermarket au that no one asked for.





	Perfect Storm

**Author's Note:**

> This idea came to @endlessreinhart during a hurricane and was added onto by @suzieq432 shortly after... here goes nothing...

> When his mother woke up one morning and decided she was done slumming it on the Southside, Jughead Jones knew what that really meant. She was done slumming it him. His dad, their family, and overall just their shitty life in a small, trashy trailer. What hurt the most was that she took his little sister, the only person who he has ever truly loved, leaving him with his alcoholic father.

The whole situation was complete bullshit. His dad wasn’t working, and he had no mother to help with income, so when eating nothing for dinner became almost unbearable, Jughead applied to get a job.

He didn’t have much, but he did have a computer and a love for writing, so when he saw a help wanted sign hanging on the Riverdale Register window he wrote an article. He put all he had into it, which wasn’t easy considering he had nothing to eat, and was running on very little sleep, But the article was good, and he wasn’t one to toot his own horn, but if he had one he would’ve.

It came from a place of anger, a piece about the funding of Riverdale going towards the Northside businesses and schools. That Riverdale was forgetting it had a whole other side of town, and while Northsiders got to live a life full of comfort, he was living in a trailer park, which by no means was living.

Looking back now, it probably wasn’t the smartest thing to write to get a job in the Northside of Riverdale. It was passionate though, and if they could look past what the article was about, they could see that he was talented, probably one of the most talented interns they’ve ever seen. But still, when Hal Cooper threw his resume in his face, literally, it wasn’t surprising, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt, also literally. He spent so much time on his article, that he hadn’t even applied anywhere else, which was making his life a lot more difficult than it needed it to be. Calling him ‘Southside Trash’ was the icing on the cake, along with the cherry that was the plethora of insults from Alice Cooper.

The day he got kicked to the curb by the Coopers was the day he started hating them with everything he had. They were the epitome of privileged northsiders. They lived on Elm Street for god's sake. They were perfect, a fairytale story. Two high school sweethearts got married and had two beautiful daughters, and later on opened up their own business that became the most successful newspaper in Riverdale.

Jugheads parents didn’t even choose to get married, they did it because they thought they had to. Him and his sister were both accidents, and when the Jones women left it wasn’t a shock, it was expected of them. If any family in Riverdale were to fall apart of course it would be them. When half of the Jones family disappeared, leaving Jughead and his father alone, the gossip spread like a wildfire. No one was surprised really, it was only a matter of time.

His next option was Pops, but then he’d have to deal with snobby Northsiders and other people he couldn’t stand, like Riverdale Highs student body. Reggie Mantle, or Cheryl Blossom, making remarks about him and not being able to spit in their food? That sounded like a nightmare. Then it hit him. Where’s the one place most teenagers don’t go? Where do they keep all the food in Riverdale? The grocery store.

So he put in his application, not expecting much after the register debacle. To his surprise and delight he was asked to come in for an interview. The girl who interviewed him was Toni Topaz, the manager. She was his age, which he thought was weird at first, but later found out that it was owned by her family. Jughead wasn't exactly bright eyed and cheery. He had sardonic humour, and a whole lot of attitude, so he didn’t really think he would get the job. He was very surprised when Toni gave him a call and told him that he had a spot if he wanted it, because ’she liked his style’. Whatever that meant.

Toni was from the Southside herself though, and the grocery store was on that side of town. But Riverdale wasn’t big enough to have two supermarkets, which meant he’d still have to deal with pretentious rich residents, which he was hoping would just be some quiet mothers that minded their own business, and didn’t try talking to him while getting their weekly organic produce. Still, to others it may have seemed like just a job, but to Jughead it was the best thing that has happened to him in a while.

Surprisingly, it turned out that Jughead was really good at his job, and after a few short months he was promoted to supervisor. That meant he had to work the front and not just stock things in the back and take inventory. The promotion also meant a pay raise, so of course he accepted. Even if he had to take the snide comments made at him every Saturday morning when Alice Cooper did her weekly shopping.

Another part of his job was training the new employees. They were mostly similar to Jughead, Southside High peers of his that needed jobs to help support their families. Some of his only friends were applying for the job too. Sweet Pea and Fangs both got jobs there, and his shifts at the supermarket were becoming the best part of his day.

The fact that he could afford food now was also a plus, and the discount for employees was helping him out a lot. Another added bonus was that his breaks were giving him time to write his novel and work on school work.

Although his happiness and satisfaction came to a stretching halt one day at work.

The day started off completely normal. He went to school, had lunch with Sweet Pea and Fangs, then arrived at the store and got changed for work. Earlier that day he got a text from Toni saying that he needed to begin training a new employee—which he didn’t care about of course, it actually involved less work for him because all he had to do was watch someone and see if they were doing things right, and they usually were. And of course he would do anything for Toni, after all that she’s done for him in the past few months. Jughead assumed that he’d be training another Southside student, or a retiree who wanted to make some extra cash.

As he waltzed to the cashier from the back he had not expected Betty Cooper to be standing in front of him, in her grocery store apron glory. He blinked, not sure if he was seeing things right. There was no way in hell Alice and Hal Cooper were allowing their go-getter, precious green eyed daughter to work at a grocery store. Here she was though. She was even wearing a trainee name tag, the name Elizabeth C written in black lettering.

“Hey, I’m Betty! It’s really nice to meet you Jug-Head,” She chirped extending an arm out to him. Jughead blinked, still very confused about her presence in the store. He met her hand and shook it once very loosely before dropping it back to his side. Brushing passed her, Jughead grabbed his apron from underneath his usual checkout counter and threw it over his head.

Betty tugged on her apron apprehensively before biting her lip,

“Toni mentioned that you would be training me today?” She said, uncertainly. “Are we starting at the cash, or in the back…” She trailed off as she eyed the beanie-wearing man in front of her, seemingly distracted by her presence.

He was having a very hard time wrapping his head around the fact that Betty Cooper was waiting on his next instruction, so much so that he forgot to respond for a while. When he realized that she was still standing there, waiting for him to answer, he said “I’m sorry, this might seem a bit unprofessional, but what are you doing here?” as he was speaking, he could see a wave of hurt flash across her face. Toni would kill him if he made the new employee quit on her first day. “Look its just I didn’t exactly expect to be training the perfect girl next door today.”

Betty noticeably winced at his choice of words, it wasn't his place to ask why, not that he even cared in the slightest. Everyone had their own battles to fight and he would bet his already limited amount of money on the fact that hers weren’t as difficult to win. Maybe training her was the last thing he wanted to do today, but a job was a job so it had to be done. Betty opened her mouth to respond to his comments but before she could Jughead cut her off.

“Over the next week I’ll train you, followed by a week of mostly supervised shifts, and then you’re on your own Coop. We’ll start with inventory in the back.” He turned to head towards the back of the store, walking down the aisle when he realized she wasn't following him. Betty cleared her throat.

“Jughead?” He faced her, and their gaze locked. She folded her arms across her chest and raised her eyebrow, fire burning in her eyes, challenging him, “You forgot to clock in.” She quipped, before walking towards the back.

A day and a bit had passed since he came into the market to find out that his new trainee was none other than the Northside princess. He knew that in order to get this done, he was going to have to make an effort to be nice. So, he gave it the old college try with everything he could muster. Which for the record, wasn’t much, which means he was failing. Her determination to succeed at this job was already getting old. It had been years since he had seen her in person but even after all these years, Jughead Jones just really couldn’t stand Betty Cooper.

That didn’t mean she wasn’t getting the hang of things at the store, because she was. Maybe it was all her questions, or maybe she needed the job more than he thought she did, but her perfectionism in the last twenty-four hours was driving him insane. It’s because he had never known her to be like that.

There are two highschools in the town of Riverdale, but only one middle and elementary school. Which meant that they attended the same school when they were kids—back when she was just little Betty Cooper; the goody-goody who had more pastel sweaters in her closet than anyone else in all Riverdale. She was always passive. The kind of kid in the class who reminded the teacher about the homework that was assigned. So when she stood in the aisle glaring at him and putting him in his place for being ignorant it had taken him by surprise. The last day hadn’t felt real because not only was he training Betty Cooper at a minimum wage job, but she had some sort of fire in her? She wasn’t the same kid he knew in elementary school, that was for sure, and it was throwing him for a loop.

He just couldn’t shake that image of her from his mind. Her brows pinched together, arms crossed in front of her, leaning on one hip, while she stepped up to the challenge. It was just not the same kindergarten Betty Cooper he knew all those years ago.

It bothered him, and on some level maybe it impressed him, but he wasn’t about to befriend her. She was the daughter of Alice and Hal Cooper after all. He only had to spend a few hours a week with her, and they didn’t even have to speak when they did see each other, but everything about her presence in his sanctuary was unsettling him.

Jughead couldn't help but wonder what she was doing working at a grocery store, especially considering it was on the Southside. Alice Cooper must have lost her marbles because her being here made absolutely no sense to him. He couldn’t think of a single reason as to why she would be here, stacking boxes on the bad side of town with a “lowlife criminal”, which were words commented at him by her very own mother.

_All they had done was take inventory in the back and arrange aisles. Even though so little time had passed, Jughead had already picked up on one of her quirks, he was a people observer after all. She was meticulous with arranging products. Everything had to be so perfect. Not just organized but weirdly almost mathematically perfect. It was almost jarring to see. He noticed it right off the bat._

_They were doing the most basic training exercise he could’ve started with. All she had to do was understand how they sorted inventory in the back. As an example, he stacked six boxes of canned goods that weren’t going on the shelves quite yet just to show her where they went. Moving to go grab the trainee paperwork he could just barely see Betty out of the corner of his eye. Before stacking her own boxes that he had asked_ _her to arrange, she took down the ones he had already done and re-did them so they were perfectly straightened out._

_“Did you just fix my stacking job Betty?” He asked sarcastically. She stopped doing the task at hand and glared at him, looking a little embarrassed._

_She swallowed nervously, “What?” He turned to face her. Her bottom lip was pulled between her teeth as she awaited his response._

_“I said, was my box stacking not good enough for you or something?” He jutted out, folding his arms across his chest. She shook her head._

_“No it's not that, it's just...your middle box was slightly off centred and it was...well it was bothering me,” she looked down as she_ _tightened the ever present, still as annoying as it was in the eighth grade, ponytail. “It’s just, I’m really particular about these things.”_

_“We’ve got a perfectionist amongst us...great.” He says, rolling his eyes and turning back to his paperwork._

Jughead set down his cup of black coffee and checked the time in the little corner of his laptop. His eyes landed back on his manuscript, that he should be writing. The blank page staring him in the face felt like it was mocking him for thinking about his coworker and not writing like he was supposed to be doing. The cursor blinked, waiting for words to be put on the page. But he was just at a loss for them at the moment. Betty Cooper was really throwing him off his game.

Why was he thinking about her so much?

Shutting the lid of the laptop down, he threw his apron over his head and started towards the front of the store. Today they were starting at the cash.

Jughead was about ten steps from the cash register he told Betty to meet at, at the end of his break when he heard an unsuspected voice.

“Reg, stop, give it back to me!” Followed by a fit of giggles from her and some other male voice. Who was she talking to? The laughing didn’t stop until Jughead fully reached the cash register to find Betty still half laughing, standing next to a tall teenage boy with a grocery bag on his head. They both turned to him at the same time.

He didn’t like the presence of someone who didn’t work here to be behind the register when they weren’t supposed to be. The authority in his voice was loud and clear when he bluntly spoke to the pair. “Who the hell is this? And what is he doing behind my counter?”

The bag-head took the plastic off his head to reveal none other than Reggie Mantle. He met Jughead’s eye, putting both hands on the table in front of him. Getting closer to Jughead.

“Awe Jones, I would’ve thought you’d remember me from grade school,” Reggie returned the tone and clenched his jaw. “I’m Betty's boyfriend.”

He nearly fell down, she has a boyfriend? Not just a boyfriend but it’s Reggie Mantle, the boy who used to torment him, from ages seven through fourteen. Captain of the Riverdale High bulldogs, the Northside douche bag. Betty Cooper was dating his childhood bully, and one for the worst people he’s ever met. He always thought she’d end up with Archie out of anyone. The fact that she was dating someone who was a complete dick wasn’t the problem though.

It was the fact that he actually cared that was bothering him.

**Author's Note:**

> follow us on Twitter @svpreinhart and @ctrlreinhart :) thank you for reading!


End file.
